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All detailed documentation now lives at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/. README retains: banner, badges, value proposition, feature highlights, one-line install, getting started commands, docs site link table, quick contributor setup, community links, and license. Removed: 1600+ lines of inline docs covering config, messaging setup, tools, skills, MCP, terminal backends, memory, cron, hooks, security, TTS, browser, batch processing, RL training, manual installation, env vars reference, file structure, and troubleshooting.
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Hermes Agent ⚕
The fully open-source AI agent that grows with you. Install it on a machine, give it your messaging accounts, and it becomes a persistent personal agent — learning your projects, building its own skills, running tasks on a schedule, and reaching you wherever you are.
Use any model you want — Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI Codex, or your own endpoint. Switch with hermes model — no code changes, no lock-in.
| A real terminal interface | Full TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output. |
| Lives where you do | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, and CLI — all from a single gateway process. Voice memo transcription, cross-platform conversation continuity. |
| Grows the longer it runs | Persistent memory across sessions. When it solves a hard problem, it writes a skill document for next time. Skills are searchable, shareable, and compatible with the agentskills.io open standard. |
| Scheduled automations | Built-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits — all in natural language, running unattended. |
| Delegates and parallelizes | Spawn isolated subagents for parallel workstreams. Write Python scripts that call tools via RPC, collapsing multi-step pipelines into zero-context-cost turns. |
| Real sandboxing | Five terminal backends — local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, and Modal — with persistent workspaces and container security hardening. |
| Research-ready | Batch trajectory generation, Atropos RL environments, trajectory compression for training the next generation of tool-calling models. |
Quick Install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
Works on Linux, macOS, and WSL2. The installer handles everything — Python, Node.js, dependencies, and the hermes command. No prerequisites except git.
Windows: Native Windows is not supported. Please install WSL2 and run the command above.
After installation:
source ~/.bashrc # reload shell (or: source ~/.zshrc)
hermes setup # configure your LLM provider
hermes # start chatting!
Getting Started
hermes # Interactive CLI — start a conversation
hermes model # Switch provider or model
hermes setup # Re-run the setup wizard
hermes gateway # Start the messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
hermes update # Update to the latest version
hermes doctor # Diagnose any issues
Documentation
All documentation lives at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs:
| Section | What's Covered |
|---|---|
| Quickstart | Install → setup → first conversation in 2 minutes |
| CLI Usage | Commands, keybindings, personalities, sessions |
| Configuration | Config file, providers, models, all options |
| Messaging Gateway | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Home Assistant |
| Security | Command approval, DM pairing, container isolation |
| Tools & Toolsets | 40+ tools, toolset system, terminal backends |
| Skills System | Procedural memory, Skills Hub, creating skills |
| Memory | Persistent memory, user profiles, best practices |
| MCP Integration | Connect any MCP server for extended capabilities |
| Cron Scheduling | Scheduled tasks with platform delivery |
| Context Files | Project context that shapes every conversation |
| Architecture | Project structure, agent loop, key classes |
| Contributing | Development setup, PR process, code style |
| CLI Reference | All commands and flags |
| Environment Variables | Complete env var reference |
Contributing
We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for development setup, code style, and PR process.
Quick start for contributors:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv venv .venv --python 3.11
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[all,dev]"
uv pip install -e "./mini-swe-agent"
python -m pytest tests/ -q
Community
- 💬 Discord
- 📚 Skills Hub
- 🐛 Issues
- 💡 Discussions
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Built by Nous Research.